- Researchers found that people ignored Alexa security concerns because of voice.
Alexa users trust the voice assistant because they see it as a secretary and not a machine, according to a study.
Researchers from Oxford and Stanford University found that they ignored concerns about privacy and surveillance because they viewed the Amazon device as a companion.
When discussing it positively, users referred to Alexa as “she” and “her,” but when talking about the device in the context of the tech giant they used “it” instead.
Professor Ekaterina Hertog of Oxford said: “This unstable use of pronouns potentially reflects users’ attempt to separate Alexa from Amazon, considering Alexa “trustworthy enough” while continuing to distrust its parent company.”
Concerns have been raised about the amount of data collected by Amazon smart speakers to create detailed user profiles.
Published in Convergence magazine, the paper set out to investigate why more than 200 million Alexa owners trust the technology in their homes “despite persistent public distrust of Amazon.”
Concerns have been raised about the amount of data collected by Amazon smart speakers to create detailed user profiles.
In addition to potentially being used for targeted advertising and sold to third parties, critics have warned that the devices are also a prime target for hackers.
However, the study found that users employ three strategies to manage fears and misgivings of AI-enabled machines that are rapidly becoming smarter.
Published in Convergence magazine, the paper set out to investigate why more than 200 million Alexa owners trust the technology in their homes “despite persistent public distrust of Amazon.”
First, users view Alexa as having a separate identity from Amazon and saw the device, pictured, as a “feminized, human-like secretary.”
This created a “sense of security around technology.”
Second, they simply accepted personal data issues with a sense of “digital resignation.”
Third, Alexa users said they set boundaries by not placing it in rooms they explicitly wanted to keep private or by turning it off during sensitive conversations.
Co-author Elizabeth Fetterolf, a PhD student at Stanford, said: “As people become more comfortable with the idea of ’Alexa listening,’ this could result in a lack of appetite to take substantial steps to both protect privacy individual level as Imagine any kind of collective resistance to the serious human and environmental cost associated with the production of the device.
